Revision as of 17:51, 6 September 2023

The official name of India

See below

India, in the official languages of India

Assamese ভাৰত Bhārôt

Bengali ভারত Bhārot

Bodo भारत Bhārôt

Dogri भारत Bhārat

Gujarati ભારત Bhārat

Hindi भारत Bhārat

Kannada ಭಾರತ Bhārata

Kashmiri ہِندوستان Hindōstān

Konkani भारत Bharot

Maithili भारत Bhārat

Malayalam ഭാരതം Bhāratam

Marathi भारत Bhārat

Meitei (Manipuri) (Bengali Assamese ভারত Bharôt) ( Meitei script ꯏꯟꯗꯤꯌꯥ[D] Indiyā)

Nepali भारत Bhārat

Odia ଭାରତ Bhārata

Punjabi ਭਾਰਤ Bhārat

Sanskrit भारतम् Bhāratam

Santali (Ol Chiki ᱥᱤᱧᱚᱛ[E] Siñôt) (Devanagari भारोत Bharot)

Sindhi भारत Bhārat/ ڀارت

Tamil இந்தியா (official), பாரதம்[F][8] Intiyā, Pāratam

Telugu భారతదేశం Bhārata

Urdu ہندوستان Hindustān

The names of India in the languages of the world

Afrikaans Indië

Albanian India

Arabic الهند Al Hind

Belarusian Індыя

Bulgarian Индия

Cambodia. in ancient times knew India by the name "Suvarnabhumi," Sanskrit for the "Land of Gold" or "Golden Land."

Catalan Índia

Czech Indie

Chinese: 印度 (Yìndù) . Ancient name 天竺 (Tiānzhú) The Chinese name "Tiānzhú" means "Heavenly Land",

Danish Indien

Dutch Indië

English India

Estonian India

Farsi هندوستان Hindostan, with an o

Filipino: India

Finnish Intia

French Inde

Galician India

German Indien

Greek Ινδία

Hebrew הודו Hodu is the Biblical Hebrew name for India mentioned in the Book of Esther

Hindi भारत

Hungarian India

Icelandic Indland

Indonesian India Ancient name: Hindia

Irish An India

Italian India

Japanese インド (Indoku) Tenjiku was the ancient Japanese name for India, somewhat similar to the Chinese name. It is said that a merchant-adventurer Tokubei (1612–1692) had a lifelong ambition to visit 'Tenjiku' (the Heavenly Land). He even renamed himself Tenjiku Tokubei out of reverence for India.

Khmer ប្រទេសឥណ្ឌា bratesa Inda

Korean 인도 (Indeo)

Lao ປະເທດອິນເດຍ pathed India

Latvian Indija

Lithuanian Indija

Macedonian Индија

Malay: India

Mandarin 印度

Norwegian India

Polish Indie (Indi)

Portuguese Índia

Romanian India

Russian Индия (Indiya)

Serbian Индија

Slovak India

Slovenian Indija

Spanish India

Southeast Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, Java and Bali) Ancient name: Jambu Dwipa

Swahili Uhindi

Swedish Indien

Tagalog. Filipino Indiya

Thai อินเดีย (Indiya/ In-thi-ya )

Tibet: Ancient names:

i) Gyagar: This is the name that the people of Ladakh use to this day.

ii) བོད་ཡུལ་ (Bod-yul) The Tibetan name "Bod-yul" means "Land of the Bhoṭiya people" who live in the Himalayan area bordering Tibet and Nepal and are found in three states of India – Sikkim, West Bengal and Utarakhand. In Utarakhand, the Bhotia primarily reside in the districts of Pithoragarh, Chamoli, Almorah, Utarkashi and Nainital.

iii) Phagyul: the land of the Aryas i

Turkish Hindistan

Ukrainian Індія

Vietnamese Ấn Độ

Welsh India

The historical names of India

Adrija Roychowdhury/ From Meluha to Hindustan, the many names of India and Bharat/ June 7, 2020/ The Indian Express

One of the oldest names used in association with the Indian subcontinent was Meluha that was mentioned in the texts of ancient Mesopotamia in the third millennium BCE, to refer to the Indus Valley Civilisation.

The earliest recorded name that continues to be debated is believed to be ‘Bharat’, ‘Bharata’, or ‘Bharatvarsha’, that is also one of the two names prescribed by the Indian constitution. Its roots are traced to Puranic literature, and to the Hindu epic, Mahabharata

Bharata, writes social scientist Catherine Clémentin-Ojha,, refers to the “supraregional and subcontinental territory where the Brahmanical system of society prevails”. Geographically, the Puranas mentioned Bharata to be situated between the ‘sea in the south and the abode of snow in the north’. Its shape and dimensions varied across different ancient texts. In that sense, …Yet, on another note, Bharata is also believed to be the mythical founder of the race.

‘Aryavarta’, as mentioned in the Manusmriti, referred to the land occupied by the Indo-Aryans in the space between the Himalayas in the north and the Vindhya mountain ranges in the south.

The name ‘Jambudvipa’ or the ‘land of the Jamun trees’ has also appeared in several Vedic texts, and is still used in a few Southeast Asian countries to describe the Indian subcontinent.

Jain literature on the other hand, also lays claim to the name Bharat, but believes that the country was called ‘Nabhivarsa’ before. “King Nabhi was the father of Rishabhanatha (the first tirthankara) and grandfather of Bharata,” writes geographer Anu Kapur in her book, ‘Mapping place names of India’.

The name ‘Hindustan’ was the first instance of a nomenclature having political undertones. It was first used when the Persians occupied the Indus valley in the seventh century BCE. Hindu was the Persianised version of the Sanskrit Sindhu, or the Indus river, and was used to identify the lower Indus basin. From the first century of the Christian era, the Persian suffix, ‘stan’ was applied to form the name ‘Hindustan’.

At the same time, the Greeks who had acquired knowledge of ‘Hind’ from the Persians, transliterated it as ‘Indus’, and by the time the Macedonian ruler Alexander invaded India in the third century BCE, ‘India’ had come to be identified with the region beyond the Indus.

By the 16th century, the name ‘Hindustan’ was used by most South Asians to describe their homeland. Historian Ian J. Barrow in his article, ‘From Hindustan to India: Naming change in changing names’, writes that “in the mid-to-late eighteenth century, Hindustan often referred to the territories of the Mughal emperor, which comprised much of South Asia.” However, from the late 18th century onwards, British maps increasingly began using the term ‘India’, and ‘Hindustan’ started to lose its association with all of South Asia…

The debate to name an Independent India

After the Independence of the country, the Constituent Assembly set up a drafting committee under the chairmanship of B R Ambedkar on August 29, 1947. However, the section, ‘name and territory of the Union’ was taken up for discussion only on September 17, 1949. Right from the moment the first article was read out as ‘India, that is Bharat shall be a union of states’, a division arose among the delegates.

Hari Vishnu Kamath, a member of the Forward Bloc suggested that the first article be replaced as ‘Bharat, or in the English language, India, shall be and such.’ Seth Govind Das, representing the Central Provinces and Berar, on the other hand, proposed: “Bharat known as India also in foreign countries”. Hargovind Pant, who represented the hill districts of the United Provinces, made it clear that the people of Northern India, ‘wanted Bharatvarsha and nothing else’…

It is worth noting though, that ‘Hindustan’ was hardly a contender in the debates. “Hindustan received different treatments during the constituent assembly,” writes Ojha. She adds that “three names had been at the start of the race, but at the end two had been placed on equal footing and one dropped.”…

The word India

The Avestan name for Sindh is Hinduš. It was inscribed by Persian emperor Darius I (550-486 BC) on the Persepolis terrace

The ancient Greeks used the name Ἰνδία (Indía). Herodotus (484 – 425/413 BC) referred to "Indian land" Ἰνδός/ Indos (‘an Indian’), following the Persians. This was more than 1300 years before the word was used in the English language.

The Byzantine people used the word Iindía to describe the region beyond the Indus (Ἰνδός) River

Ancient Latin speakers borrowed the name India from the Greeks.

Most European languages—including English—use a variant of the Latin word India.

In English, King Alfred (A.D. 848-899)'s translation of Orosius is the oldest known use of the word India in the English language. this was more than 1300 years after the earliest recorded use of the word.

However, English writers who were influenced by the French replaced India with Ynde and Inde. Inde remains the French spelling to this day.

William Shakespeare (1564- 1616) and the first edition of the King James Bible (1611) used the spelling Indie

In the 1600s the Spanish and the Portuguese spelt the word as it is today, India, which was also the official Latin spelling. This could have induced the British to revert to the spelling India.

Summary: The British did not coin the name India. Latin- speakers did. They in turn took it from the Greeks, who were influenced by the Persians, who preceded the oldest known British use of the word India by more than 1300 years

The name India has nothing to do with the colonial era and is the name by which India has been known to its Western neighbours for the last 2500 years or even more.

Kling, in the Malay and neighbouring languages

The term "Kling" is a Malay word that was used to refer to people from the Kalinga kingdom, which was located in what is now the Indian state of Orissa. The Kalinga kingdom was a powerful empire that existed from the 3rd century BC to the 13th century AD. It was known for its wealth and its military prowess.

The term "Kling" was first used in Southeast Asia in the 14th century, when the Kalinga kingdom was in decline. The Malays began to use the term to refer to all Indians, regardless of their origin. This usage of the term was not derogatory at the time. In fact, it was often used as a term of respect.

However, the meaning of the term "Kling" began to change in the 19th century. As more and more Indians migrated to Southeast Asia the term "Kling" came to be used as a derogatory term for Indians, and it is still considered offensive by many Indians today.

B: The legal constitutional position in India

Name: India, not Hindustan

1947, June

June 18, 2022: The Times of India

TOI June 13, 1947 edition: Gandhi tells his prayer meeting that all religions and lower classes should have a place in the new country, and so it was better to call it India, not Hindustan
From: June 18, 2022: The Times of India

A quick recap of June 1-10: After hectic parleys through March-April and again in late May and early June, the basic plan for partition is announced simultaneously in Delhi and London on June 3. The Hindu Mahasabha rejects the plan and calls for more land to be ceded to India. The shape of the nation hasn’t been finalised. Almost half a billion people wait for the details to emerge.

June 11-18: Picking a name, dividing the army

“Caste Hindus on trial”: On June 12, at his daily post-prayer meeting, Mahatma Gandhi says that even though the Muslim-majority areas want to call their part Pakistan, there is no need to call the rest of the territory Hindustan.

He asks, would Hindustan mean “the abode of the Hindus”? What of the Parsis, Christians and Jews born in India, and the “Anglo-Indians who did not happen to have white skins” – did they have any home other than India?


A front-page report quotes Gandhi saying, "History has shown that the possessors of proud names did not make the possessors great. Men and groups were known not by what they called themselves but by their deeds... That's why Nehru loved to call it by the proud name of the 'Union of Indian republics', from which some Muslim-majority areas had seceded."

Gandhi puts a challenge to what he calls ‘caste Hindus’: "Already the taunt is being levelled against the Union that the much-maligned caste Hindus would ostracise the millions of Scheduled Classes, and an equal number of Shudras and the so-called aboriginal tribes… Caste Hindus are on trial. Would they recognise and do their obvious duty, and give place to the least in the Union by affording them all the facilities to rise to the highest status?" 
Patel puts weight behind Partition plan: Sardar Patel tells a session of the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) that no one wants partition, but the reality is stark and undeniable.


He denies that the Congress Working Committee had accepted the plan out of fear and tells Congressmen not to "give way to emotionalism and sentimentality". He says the choice is essentially between one division or many divisions.

The report quotes him indirectly mentioning those who had laid their lives for independence, "They worked for independence, and they should see as large a part of this country as possible become free and strong. Otherwise, there would be neither 'Akhand Hindustan' nor Pakistan." 


After a series of speeches by leaders, 157 out of 218 AICC members endorse the partition in a vote on June 15, with 29 votes against. Five hundred reporters and other visitors crammed into the Constitution Club, with many more squatting on the lawns outside, receive the result in silence.


No to dividing armed forces on communal lines: Both the Congress and Muslim League – the main members of the High-Power Partition Committee – are for dividing the armed forces along territorial lines, and not communal ones, says a June 12 report in the TOI.

An expert committee is being drawn up to decide the details. The full handover of the forces might spill over beyond June 1948, by when the British want to withdraw, because of the time-consuming effort and the lack of trained personnel.


Noting that almost every battalion has a mix of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and other communities, the TOI reports notes that “they have separate kitchens”. 


An unnamed high-ranking officer at the general headquarters quotes a poll conducted in the three army commands in the North, South and East that showed that 95% of the soldiers wanted common kitchens. 
 Hyderabad and Travancore want independence, Gandhi calls it ‘war’: Calling Hindus and Muslims "the two eyes" of his dominion and promising to foster cordial relations between them, the Nizam of Hyderabad puts out a firman or edict stating his wish for Hyderabad to remain a sovereign state.


Mir Osman Ali says he wants to join neither of the two new nations being created. Chithira Thirunal, the Maharaja of Travancore, joins him in declaring he wants to stay independent.

Gandhi exhorts the states to join India. He says it is "amazing and wholly unworthy of any state" to be happy to stay in a British India but refuse to join the independent nation.


Gandhi ramps up pressure through the week, writing two days later, "The states' decision is tantamount to declaring war against the free millions in India. Such a thing is inconceivable, especially when the prince has no backing from the people of his state. The audacity of such a declaration is amazing." 


Meanwhile in the rest of India 


Foodgrains crisis in Bombay: Dinkarrao Desai, minister for civil supplies in Bombay, says that the state’s stocks of wheat and rice are precariously low.

He says the province’s monthly demand for wheat is 35,000 tonnes, but it is unlikely to get more than 10,000-12,000 tonnes. The scarcity would last at least three more months from June, Desai warns a public meeting in Girgaum.


“Our wheat crop has failed completely on account of rust and the crops in the Central Provinces and the United Provinces have also been partly affected,” he reports. 


How India lived: Advertisements in TOI 


Ghanshyam Das Birla's Hindustan Motors imported and serviced American Studebaker vehicles in 1947 before signing an agreement with them in 1948 to assemble the cars in Uttarpara, West Bengal.

In 1950, India produced about 40% of the world's tea, more than two-thirds of which was exported. The challenge for tea companies in India through the 1930s and 1940s was to expand the Indian market.

Milan , a film starring Dilip Kumar and Ranjana that opened during the week, was an adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore's story Noukadubi ( The Wreck ). It was Dilip Kumar's first film for Devika Rani’s Bombay Talkies studio.